Treading on a future we may never get to see

[mfbrandi]

Here’s a link (legit/official mp3 download) to today’s BBC World Service documentary about you-know-what:

The end of civilisation: Bronze Age collapse

One of the participants is Eric Cline of 1177 B.C. fame, and he is threatening a sequel to that book (which is still sitting on my shelf saying ‘you cannot be bothered to read me’).

Not the deepest or the last word on the topic, but if you like this kind of thing, they have loads more available on diverse topics.

Edited November 3, 2022 by mfbrandi
original comment tedious beyond belief

[Akhôrahil]

I'm inclined to wonder whether parts of the Bronze age collapse had to with the increased availability of iron weapons - that is, did the Iron age smash the Bronze age? It's not otherwise obvious why societal collapse and the end of the Bronze age should happen at the same time.

Bronze required a fair amount of sophistication due to the trade routes, and was expensive, but with iron, any old barbarians could have access to decent metal weapons, and use them to defeat their more civilized neighbours. 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Akhôrahil

[Bill the barbarian]

24 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

I'm inclined to wonder whether parts of the Bronze age collapse had to with the increased availability of iron weapons - that is, did the Iron age smash the Bronze age? It's not otherwise obvious why societal collapse and the end of the Bronze age should happen at the same time.

 

I have seen some good treatises about how drought and subsequent famine (possibly caused by climate change) forced Europeans (from the Italian peninsula and some parts of the Balkans and the Hellenic peninsula) who had served as mercenaries in the eastern Mediterranean wars out of their homelands and into taking a place in their former bosses' territories. These fine warriors did not come alone but were joined by their tribes as well. This tended to increase the pressure of already occurring disasters in these lands...

Add to that the sea people, who may well have faced the same climate disasters as the former mercenaries and toss in the advent of iron weapons and the collapse was just waiting to happen. Situations that we that we now call A Perfect Storm.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[Joerg]

26 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

I'm inclined to wonder whether parts of the Bronze age collapse had to with the increased availability of iron weapons - that is, did the Iron age smash the Bronze age? It's not otherwise obvious why societal collapse and the end of the Bronze age should happen at the same time.

Bronze required a fair amount of sophistication due to the trade routes, and was expensive, but with iron, any old barbarians could have access to decent metal weapons, and use them to defeat their more civilized neighbours. 

The "Bronze Age Collapse" was a phenomenon limited to the Fertile Crescent and adjacent territories. The Carpathian and non-Mediterranean European Bronze Age continued with hardly a hitch for a few centuries more, with the Urnfield culture being a good analogon for Orlanthi culture. They simply lost a market and source for luxuries.

Iron was developed on Cyprus, the copper island, when feasible oxidic copper ore deposits ran empty, well before the Bronze Age collapse. As a replacement material, it started out inferior, requiring a lot more work for the same amount of workable metal, new methods of smithing, and initally no significant if any bonus in terms of hardness or durability.

 

The German forests had their share of bog iron, but the Germanic tribes of the Roman era still were starved in metals, and imported most of their iron from the Empire. "Any old barbarian" does not cut it.

[mfbrandi]

42 minutes ago, Joerg said:

The "Bronze Age Collapse" was a phenomenon limited to the Fertile Crescent and adjacent territories.

Imagining a little local difficulty to be a global apocalypse is an occupational hazard in pint-in-hand Gloranthan punditry. Never mind the quality, feel the width myth.